


like the stars above me

by helsinkibaby



Category: NCIS
Genre: Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Fluff, Het, Reunions, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 12:46:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15267795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: It's been six months since Nick has seen Ellie.





	like the stars above me

**Author's Note:**

> For the weekend challenge "Boys and girls names in song titles". One of mine was Daisy Jane by America, which is about a man returning to see his girlfriend, which is the spin I took on this.

“Well, you’re certainly ready to leave us.” 

Captain Sheridan’s voice is filled with amusement as he looks around the Agent Afloat office, with its bare desk and bare but for one photograph walls. Following his gaze, Nick cocks his head. “I’ve been ready to leave you for six months now,” he reminds the captain. He’s smiling when he says it though, and it’s greeted with a nod and a smile. 

“Is this where I’m supposed to point out you’ve only been with us for six months?” he asks. Nick just shrugs and the captain inclines his head. “Ok... I know this wasn’t your first choice of post...”

Nick can’t help himself. He snorts. Which he instantly is aware is not the polite thing to do but luckily Captain Sheridan seems to know exactly where he’s coming from. “You could say that,” Nick says, and not only could he, but he would and he did and he had. Loudly and often. Indeed, when word had come on down from on high that someone from Gibbs’s team was needed as an Agent Afloat, there hadn’t exactly been a rush for the job. Gibbs, with all the joy of seniority, had just said no. No-one really expected Tim to do it, not with Delilah and the twins at home. Which put it squarely between Nick and Ellie. And while the last thing Nick had wanted to do was live at sea for six months, he’d taken one look at Ellie -her blonde hair, long legs, killer body - and volunteered without a second thought. Not that he thinks he had anything to worry about because Ellie is nothing if not loyal, is as far from the cheating kind as it’s possible to be. No, he wasn’t worried about her being on a ship with almost a thousand men. 

But he knows how some men think and he especially knows how some men think when they’ve been away from home for a long period of time. He’s been on ships with Ellie before, he’s seen the second and third glances she attracted. And that was just for a few days here and there. Six months solid? 

There had been no way he was letting his girl sail the seven seas for six months, not when there was something he could do about it. 

Chauvinistic? Probably. 

Possessive? Definitely. 

Nick would do it again in a heartbeat. 

“It’s understandable.” Sheridan’s gaze falls on the lone item still tacked up on the wall, a photograph pinned in the exact place that Nick’s eyes landed every time he looked up from his desk. There’s nothing salacious in the older man’s gaze, nothing that Nick could possibly find objectionable. Still, it gives him an excuse to look at the picture, not that he needs one. Just like always, it makes him smile. “But you’ve been a good Agent Afloat. It’s been a pleasure to work with you.” 

Nick’s surprised to feel a swell of pride at the words and he shakes the man’s offered hand. “You too, Sir,” he says and he means it. 

“But not enough to stay?” The look on Nick’s face must be as horrified as he feels because Sheridan actually belly laughs. “That’s what I thought.” Another glance at the picture. “Better get topside, Agent... we dock in five minutes.” 

Nick snaps off a salute that manages to be half decent and fairly respectful and then the captain is gone, leaving Nick alone with his thoughts and his photograph. Slowly, he walks over and pulls out the push pin holding it up. It's been there ever since he arrived, was the first thing he put up, and from some of the comments he's overheard about the Agent Afloat's girl back home, he's glad that he took this assignment instead of Ellie. Particularly since it's not even a particularly revealing picture. It couldn't be, not when it was taken in the middle of November at Morgan and Johnny McGee's first birthday party. Jimmy had taken it upon himself to go around taking photographs of everyone in attendance - "When they're grown up, they'll want to know who was here for them," he'd told everyone - and when he'd come near Nick and Ellie, Nick had slipped an arm around Ellie's waist, pulled her close against him. She was smiling widely in the picture, looking neither at Nick nor at Jimmy, but at Delilah who had, off camera, shouted, "Aaaw!" Ellie had told Nick later on a couple of the more... well, interesting comments that Delilah had made during a lunch they'd had the previous week and Nick had found himself thankful for little ears and Delilah not wanting to scar them for life. It had made a great picture, one that made Nick want to smile every time he looked at it. That's why he'd brought a print of it with him, made sure he could see it every day. 

Today, he was still smiling looking at it, but for a different reason. 

Because today instead of making do with the picture, he was going to get the real thing. See her actual smile, hear her laugh, wrap his arms around her and press her against him like he was never going to let her go. 

It's possible that he may have thought about this a lot over the last month. Or six. 

Of course, the same way that Christmas Eve seems to last forever when you're a kid, the last few days, the last few hours have seemed interminably long, and time seems to move even more slowly once it's time for the ship to dock. It doesn't help that every crew member on board is as eager to leave as he is so by the time Nick finally sets foot on dry land, the antsy feeling in his stomach has about tripled in size so that he feels like he's ready to jump out of his skin. 

He scans the faces in the crowd, grins as he sees some of his poker buddies wrapped in the arms of their wives and kids. There's no sign of Ellie though and it's not like her to be late so he moves deeper into the crowd, eyes moving left and right, looking for a flash of blonde hair. 

But he still doesn't see her. 

Frowning, he turns again, looks over another section of the crowd and he's almost given up hope when he hears a voice calling his name. A familiar voice, a breathless voice. 

He turns and there she is. 

He's pictured this moment a ridiculous amount of times. In none of them was she wearing her NCIS windbreaker, baseball cap on her head, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. 

In all of them, she'd done what she's just done now, stopped in her tracks and stared at him, a wide grin splitting her face, eyes suddenly shimmering in the sunlight. 

And in all of them, he'd closed the distance between them, lifting her off her feet and spinning her around. 

So that's what he does. 

The feel of her body pressed against him is better than he remembered and when she wraps her arms around his neck, buries her head in the crook of his shoulder, laughing and crying all at once, it's the best sound he's ever heard. He spins her until he can blame any lightheadedness on that alone, then he sets her down, stares into her hazel eyes. 

"I'm sorry," are the first words out of her mouth and he wants to laugh at how ridiculous that sounds. What could she possibly have to apologise for? “We caught a case and I couldn't leave the team high and dry at the crime sc-"

She has to stop talking then because he kisses her. 

Possibly not cool, interrupting her like that, but she doesn't seem to object, not when she's responding as enthusiastically as she is. 

When he draws back, he rests his forehead against hers. Her cheeks are pink and her eyes are shining. "Please," he says, his voice rough even to his own ears, "tell me you don't have to go back to work right now." 

Her grins widens. "Gibbs told me to take the rest of the day... but to make sure we're both on time tomorrow morning." 

Nick slides his hands down her back, rests them on her hips and kneads gently. "I knew I liked that man." Bending his head, he brushes his lips over hers. "Though of course, little miss workaholic, if you want to head back..." 

He's joking and they both know it. Not that she seems to have any intention of considering the suggestion if the way she's pressing herself against him is anything to go by. "Tim and Jimmy have been concerned that you'll struggle adjusting to life on shore," she says, tilting her head. "They wanted to come check on you..." He actually can't think of anything worse. He loves his friends but he hasn't seen Ellie for six months and being alone with her was literally all that got him through the last few months. "But I told them I could handle it." 

She puts a peculiar inflection on the last phrase; he hears it loud and clear. It makes him smile. "Oh, you did, did you?" 

"You know..." One shoulder rises and falls. "Take one for the team and all that..." 

"Just one?" He lifts an eyebrow, acts offended. "Oh baby, I think we can do way better than one..." 

Turns out he's right, but then, he's always been a man of his word, especially when it comes to her.

**Author's Note:**

> I am aware that there is another Nick/Ellie fic on fanfiction.net which has them reuniting after he's been an agent afloat. I'm honestly not stealing the idea but there are only so many reasons that he'd be away for work and I really wanted to work the picture angle in for that Tony/Ziva echo! If the author happens to read this, please know no offence was intended!


End file.
